A jury in Chicago awarded $49.5 million in damages Wednesday to the family of a 24-year-old American who perished in a 2019 Boeing 737 MAX crash.
The suit was brought by relatives of Samya Stumo, who died in the March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash that claimed 157 lives.
The jury deliberated approximately two hours, then found that “the total amount of damages suffered by Plaintiff is $49.5 million,” according to court documents.
Nearly all of the civil lawsuits around the crash have been settled out of court. In Stumo’s case, however, her family had been unable to reach an agreement with Boeing ahead of the trial, which began on Monday.
“We are deeply sorry to all who lost loved ones on Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302,” Boeing said in a statement.
“While we have resolved nearly all of these claims through settlements, families are entitled to pursue their claims through the court process, and we respect their right to do so.”
Stumo was killed while en route to Kenya for her first assignment with ThinkWell, a public health non-governmental organization that aimed to increase access to health care in Africa and Asia.
But the plane went down shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa, killing everyone aboard.
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That crash followed a Lion Air crash about four and a half months earlier in Indonesia that killed 189 people.
The same Boeing model was involved in both — the 737 Max 8.
After those incidents, Boeing was forced to ground all of its 737 Max planes for nearly two years to install required system upgrades.
The company had faced a criminal fraud charge connected to the crashes, but federal prosecutors agreed to drop the case after Boeing agreed to pay more than $1.1 billion in fines, and an additional $445 million in compensation for the crash victims’ families. The deal also required Boeing to strengthen internal safety and quality measures.
The deal allowed Boeing to avoid criminal prosecution for allegedly misleading U.S. regulators about the 737 Max jetliner before the two crashes.
